The present invention relates to a methodology for improving the security in the handling of print job output. In particular, the present invention relates to when a shared printer places security sensitive printout in the output bin.
Sharing of resources has become an integral part of the typical day-to-day business operations scenario. In particular, printers of greater cost and which offer such attributes as higher speed, better resolution or color are shared. However, this means that the printed hardcopy output in the shared resource is often provided in a limited number of output bins or even just a single output bin. Most printers designed for resource sharing accommodate this problem in a few ways. Security for sensitive printout is a concern for all of them.
If there is but one output bin the printer will typically skew or offset entire print jobs from each other. Often a banner or header page is inserted as a separator sheet between the print jobs in order to differentiate one job from another. Examples of this are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,483 to Hannigan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,279 to Corona et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,374 to Taylor et al., which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for their teaching. With the sharing of this type of printer resource, there comes an inevitable increase in the misplacement of print jobs which must be endured. However, for those occasions requiring security where a sensitive print is generated this may be intolerable.
If there is more than one output bin dedicated then lockable bins may be used to provide greater security. Discussion of such systems and their limitations and technology may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,773 to Sklut et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,058 to Mandel et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,697 also to Mandel et al. which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for their teaching. While such systems may notify the originator that their print job has completed, or of problems with their hardcopy output, such systems fail to notify the originator that successfully printed hardcopy of security sensitive documents have been removed from the output bin. Such immediate feedback would greatly improve tracking and the securing of sensitive documents for the minimum of cost compared with other systems.
Therefore, as discussed above there exists a need for a methodology which will solve the problem improving the security for sensitive documents and hardcopy. Thus, it would be desirable to solve this and other deficiencies and disadvantages with an improved methodology.
The present invention relates to a method for a shared printer to provide increased security for a print job in its output bin to a print job originator, comprising outputting a print job to the output bin. This is followed by monitoring the output bin for removal of the print job, and signaling the print job originator when the print job is removed from the output bin.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for a LAN connected printer to provide increased security for a print job in its output bin to a print job originator, comprising outputting a print job to the output bin. This is followed by monitoring a sensor in the output bin for removal of the print job, and signaling the print job originator over the LAN when the print job is removed from the output bin.
The present invention more particularly relates to a method for a LAN connected printer to provide increased security for a print job in its output bin to a print job originator, comprising examining the print job for a security indicator. This is followed by outputting the print job to the output bin and if the security indicator labeled the print job as sensitive monitoring a sensor in the output bin for removal of the print job. Then signaling the print job originator over the LAN when the print job is removed from the output bin.